Unlocking Your Thoracic Spine with Video
By now, everyone and their mother knows “sitting is the new smoking,” and that a desk job will slowly eat away at your mobility. Recent trends in the fitness industry indicate a big shift towards “functional” movements and increased mobility, with multiple pieces of literature written on the subjects. The trouble is, working on increasing flexibility and mobility isn’t what most people have in mind when they’re working on their fitness at the gym. And yes, I know that time is valuable and know that most people just want to get in and out of the gym as quickly as possible. The great thing about improving your mobility is that it can be done virtually anywhere, anytime, and with minimal to no equipment. And, if you’re like most people sitting for 6-8 hours a day, some of the upper back, neck, and shoulder, and even low back discomfort you may be experiencing could be stemming from a lack of mobility in your Thoracic Spine.
My WHAT??!
Your thoracic spine (or t-spine for short) is what makes up the portion of your torso from just below your neck (your cervical spine) to your low back (your lumbar spine). These vertebrae, T1 through T12, provide the structure for your upper back, shoulder girdle, and ribcage. The Thoracic Spine houses some pretty important organs, and having a fully functional one is essential to movements like pressing, pulling, and vital functions such as proper breathing.
To some degree, flexing the thoracic spine is helpful and even necessary to some athletic activities (like cycling and, my favorite, grappling). But, as my mom likes to say, too much of a good thing can be a bad thing– this is especially true where body positioning is concerned. Many of us spend so much time in thoracic flexion at work, and then go home and continue the trend. While there is nothing inherently wrong with the position itself, trouble arises when this position becomes the default. The human body is an extremely complex machine, and it’s smarter than you. That means, if you’re stuck in a hunched forward position, but decide you want to overhead press some dumbbells or lift a heavy box overhead, your body will find a way to make that happen at the expense of another part of your body– it’s called compensation. In this example, your body might try to find the extra couple of degrees of extension it needs to get the object overhead from the low back, which may cause you to believe that area is actually the problem when that may not be the case.
So how do you know if your poor T-spine is in need of some TLC? We teamed up with Specht Physical Therapy to help us showcase what proper body positioning looks like, as well as some mobility drills that you can integrate into your workout routine to help improve your posture and ultimately, your fitness level. We promise, your T-spine will love you!
